This is my fist time participating in Adopt A Gluten Free Blogger, which was hosted by Sea of Book Of Yum . I’ve seen other gluten-free bloggers posting about Adopt A Gluten Free Blogger each month, but never really knew what it was. However, this month I got really excited about it because I had been adopted!! Shirley from Gluten Free Easily adopted me – I was so excited (I’m a dork I know), but this was my first adoption. Seeing as I was adopted, I decided I needed to adopt someone too so I picked Heidi from Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom. I absolutely adore and admire Heidi and hope to meet her in person someday. She has been a fantastic help, resource and encouragement to me in my own journey of being Gluten-Free. Every time I have tried her recipes I have never been disappointed. I can e-mail her anytime to ask silly questions – like today I had to ask her if I needed to add xanthan gum or not to the recipe and then realized that the all purpose flour mixture I was using already had it in there -duh, Jenny! Heidi is always willing to help, share ideas and make suggestions.

I think I found Heidi’s blog about a year a go and instantly fell in love with her blog and recipes and I continually go to her blog for ideas. For my fist time participating I really wanted to look at all of her recipes and try something new. I was so torn by several of her recipes, especially her new Allergy Free Pasta Dough, but instead I decided on a soup and a dessert. It is getting a bit chilly here and fall is here in full force. The leaves are starting to change color, pumpkins and apples are in abundance and it is time to take out the sweaters, scarves and start having fires at night. I truly love this time of year and I love the food that goes along with it.

Soups have always been big in my family. My dad is a hunter and carpenter so he was always outside either working or trying to hunt for our dinners. (I just want to clarify my dad and other family members do not hunt for sport, it was a means of survival). During this time of year he would come home from work or hunting and my mom would have a huge got of soup or stew going. Even my first cooking memory is learning to make chicken soup with my grandmother. So I decided to choose one of Heidi’s soups and the recipe that I kept going back to is her Sausage and Bean Ragout and the only two substitution I made to the recipe was I left out the onions because Bryan is allergic to them and I used a different gluten-free pasta. And I have to be honest, I was so caught up in football that I read the recipe wrong and instead of adding one cup of the gluten-free pasta I added the whole bag of it! Whoops – so I just added a bit more chicken stock, basil and some garlic powder and it tasted great (it tasted the same as it tasted before my whole mess up). This soup is fantastic!! Bryan loved it and we now have plenty of left overs – enough to share with our neighbors! I’ll defiantly be making this again.

The very tasty finished product

Ground beef and hot sausage

Ground beef and hot sausage, browned

Next, add the garlic – and lots of it!

Add the broth, tomatoes, beans and basil

Simmer (and sneak a taste or two, it’s so good)

Add the 1 CUP of pasta not 1 BAG of pasta ;)

Next up, lots of fresh baby spinach leaves

Wilt the spinach and serve!

The second recipe I decided to make was Heidi’s Old Fashioned Raspberry Bars– Bryan loves raspberries so when I saw this recipe I knew automatically that these had to be made. This recipe is extremely easy and super yummy. However I wish I had some home-made raspberry preserves to use, but instead I had store-bought. It still tasted great…Heidi also suggested using other fruit preserves such as apricot or marmalade. I think next time I might try maybe strawberry preserve but again, these will be made again. These bars are super yummy

Half of the crumb mixture pressed into the bottom of the pan

Add the raspberry preserves

Add the second half on top, press lightly and bake

Thanks to Heidi for all sharing all of her wonderful recipes, stories, knowledge and wisdom to all of us – you truly are an inspiration! . If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you really should, she is a wonderful lady and as I like to call her Wonder Woman! Check out some other Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger posts at Book Of Yum.

Awww….Jenny! I don’t think I’ve ever been “adopted” before, so thank you for getting me out of the orphanage! :-D

I deeply appreciate all the kind words, you are such a sweetheart and a great source of inspiration and wisdom for others too, I just love our gluten-free community, we sure are a tight-knit group of people, who really look out for one another.

The recipe for the Sausage Bean Ragout actually came out of a Campbell’s cookbook that I have and it is a great introduction for adding dark green leafy greens into one’s diet, my kiddos LOVED it (pork fat has a way of making anything taste good!). I also make this soup with other greens now too, like kale and my kids LOVE it!

And great correction call on the pasta overload (LOL), a super easy fix!

Super job, Jenny. I can assure you that Heidi is just as delightful in person as she is on her blog. She is so fun and funny and passionate about gf cooking and living. I’m going to have to give that soup a try.

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